(FORTUNE Magazine) – By the standards of the 30-year men who run most of the world's biggest companies, Cesare Romiti of Fiat Group is a job-hopper. Before joining Fiat 13 years ago, Romiti, who was born and educated in Rome, headed Italy's state- owned airline and telephone companies. But nothing in Cesare's career compares with his performance as boss of the company that makes more cars than any other in Europe. Since 1980, when Giovanni Agnelli, Fiat's principal owner, put Romiti in charge, earnings have risen from $60 million to a record $1.4 billion. Dubbed ''Il Duro'' (the hard one) by Italy's nickname-loving press, Romiti placed Fiat on the road to high-octane profits by taking on and defeating its domineering unions. At a time when layoffs were considered politically impossible, he fired 23,000 workers and then successfully withstood a bitter strike. Today Fiat produces as many cars as it did in 1980, with 30% fewer workers and far more flexible assembly lines. Now Romiti must rev up Alfa Romeo, the ailing state-owned carmaker Fiat acquired last fall. After months of negotiations, Alfa's unions agreed to the same work rules that apply to Fiat. Encouraged, Romiti believes Alfa should return to profitability ''faster than planned.''

To stay on the fast track, Romiti aims to expand the company's nontransportation businesses, which account for 25% of revenues. He will also engineer more strategic alliances, like Fiat's robotics joint venture with General Motors and its factory and office automation partnership with IBM. At 64 he has reached the age when most chief executives contemplate retirement. But Romiti, who lives with his wife, Gina, in an apartment minutes from headquarters, is in no rush to trade his 12-hour days for long afternoons at the soccer stadium watching his favorite team, Turin's Juventus. Says he: ''Like so-called mature industries, mature managers are those who cease to innovate as fast as they should to stay competitive. That has nothing to do with age.'' As long as his major shareholder stays happy -- and Gianni Agnelli recently took the unusual step of making Romiti a shareholder and director in his family's private holding company -- Il Duro may endure long enough to qualify as at least a 20-year company man.